The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-11-02
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject: forbidden Honey"

TEXT: 81 did but taste a lille honey evith
the end of the rod that ,cds in my hand, and
10! Unjust del Samuel xiv, 43.
The honey bee is most ingenious architect,
a Christopher Wren among insects, geome-
ter drawing hexagons and pentagons a free
booter robbing the fields of pollen and aroma,
q awondrous creature Of Goa, whose biography,
written by Huber and Swammerdam, is an
enchantment for any lover of nature. Virgil
celebrated the bee in his fable Of AristpuS,
and Moses, and Samuel, and David, and Solo
mon, and jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and St.
John used the delicaccs of bee manufacture
as Bible symbol. A miracle of formation is
the bee: five eyes, two tongues, the outer nav
ing a sheath of protection, hair on all SIDES of
its tiny body to brush up the particles Of
flowers: its flight so straight that all the world
knows of the bee line. The honeycomb is
palace such as no one but God could plan
and the honey bee construct; Its cells
sometimes dormitory, sometimes store
house, and sometimes cemetery. These
winged toilers first make eight strips Of
wax, and by their antennp, which are to
them hammer and chisel, and square and
plumb line, fashion them for use. Two
and two, these workers shape the wall.
II an accident happen they put up but
tresses or extra beams to remedy the dam
age. When about the year 1776 an insect,
before unknown, in the night time attacked
the beehives all over Europe, and the men
who owned them were III vain trying to plan
something to keep out the invader that was
the terror of the beehives of the continent, it
was found that everywhere the bees had ar
ranged for their own protection, and built
before their honeycombs an especial wall of
wax, with portfolios through which the bees
might 90 to and fro, but not large enough to
admit the winged combatant, called the
Sphinx Atropos.
DO YOU know that the swarming of the bees
is divinely directed! The mother bee starts
for new home, and because of this the other
bees of the hive get into an excitement which
raises the heat of the hive some folr degrees,
and they must die unless they leave their
heated apartments, and they follow the
another bee and alight Oh the branch of
tree and cling to each other and hold on
until committee Of two or three have ex-
plored the region and found the hollow Of a
tree or rock not far off from stream of
water, and they here set up new colony,
and ply their aromatic industries, and give
themselves to the manufacture of the Saccha-
rine edible But who can tell the chemistry
of that mixture of sweetness, part of it the
very life of the bee and part Of it the life of
the fieldss
Plenty of the luscious product was hang
Ing in the woods Of Beth-aven during the
time OF Saul and Jonathan. Their army was
in pursuit of an enemy that by Gods COM
uand must be exterminated The soldiery
were positively forbidden to stop to eat any
thing until the work was done. If they DISC
beyed they were accurSed. Coming through
the woods they found place where the bees
had been busy, a great honey manufactory.
Honey gathered in the hollow of the trees
until it had overfowed upon the ground in
great profusion of sweetness All the army
,obeyed orders and touched it not save Jona-
than. and he not knowing the military order
about abstinence, ,dippe the end of stick he
had in his hand into the candle liquid, and
as, yellow and brown, and tenptingit glowed
on the end of the stick he put it to his mouth
and ate the honey. Judgm mt fell upon him,
and but for special Intervention he would
have been slain. In my text Jonathan an
4nounces his awful mistake: 81 did but taste
q little honey with the end of the rod that was
in my hand, and, 10, must die" Alas, what
,multitudes of people in all ages have been
damaged by forbidden honey, by which I
mean temptation, delicious and attractive,
but damaging and destructive.
Corrupt literature, fascinating but deathful,
comes in this category. Where one good,
'healthful book is read now there are one
hundred made up Of rhetorical trash con-
sumed with avidity. When the boy in the
cars comes through with pile of publica-
tions look over the titles and notice that nine
out of every ten of the books are depicting
and injurious Au the way from New York
to Chicago or New Orleaas notice that OBJ
jectionablc books dominate Taste for pure
literature is poisoned by this scum of the
publishing houses, Every book in which sin
triumphs over virture, or in which a glamor
is thrown over dissipation, or which leaves
you at its last line with less respect for the
marriage institution and less adherence
Tor the paramour, is depression
of your own moral character The
book bindery may be attractive, and the plot
dramatic and startling, and the style Of
writing sweet as the honey that Jonathan
dipped up with his rod, but your best inter
eSts forbid it, your moral safety forbids it,
your God forbids it, and one taste of it may
lead to such bad results that you may have
to say at the close Of the experiment, or at
the close OF misimproved lifetime: II did
but taste a little honey with the rod that was
in my hand, and, 10, must die.''
HCorrupt literature is doing more to-day for
the disruption of domestic life than any other
cause. Elopements, marital intrigues, sly
correspondence, fictitious names given at
postoffice windows, clandestine meetings in
parks, and at ferry gates, and in hotel par
lors, and conjugal periuries, are among the
damnable results. When a woman young
or old, gets her head thoroughly stuffed
with the modern novel she is in ap-
palling peril But some one will say: "The
heroes are so adroitly knavish, and the per-
sons so bewltchingly untrue and the turn
or the story SO exquisite, and all the charac-
ters so enrapturing, cannot quit them
My brothor, my sister, you can find styles OF
literature Just as charming that will elevate
and purify and ennoble, and Christianize
while they please. The devil does not own
all the honey. There is 4 wealth of good
books coming forth from our publishing
houses that leaves no excuse for the choice OF
that which is debauching to body, mind and
soul. Go TO some intelligent man or woman
and ask for list Of books that will be
Strengthening to your mental and moral
condition Life is so short and your time for
improvement so abbreviated that you can
not afford to fill up with husks and cinders
and debris In the interSticeS of business
that young man is reading that which will
prepare him to be q merchant prince, and
that young woman is filling her mind with an
intelligence that will yet either make her tho
chief attraction of good mans home or give
her an independence Of character that will
qualify her to build her own nome and main
tain it in a happiness that requires no aug
mentation from any Of our rougher sex. That
young man or young woman can by the right
literary and moral improvement Of the spare
ten minutes here or there in every day, rise
head and shoulders in prosperity and charac-
ter and influence above the loungers who
read nothing, or read that which bedwarfs.
See all the forests of good American litera-
ture dripping with honey. Why pick up the
honeycombs that have in them the fiery bees
which will sting you with all eternal poison
while you taste it! One book may for you or
me decide everything for this world and the
next. 1t was turning point with me when
in Wynkoop's bookstore, Syracuse. one
day 1 picked up a book called The
Beauties Of Ruskin." 1t was only book OF
was not satisfied until I had purchased all
I,;o uorbe at that time eYDpnSiye beyOnd an